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For those of you just tuning in (aka YOU, you gorgeous soul): I wanted to make sure that you were aware of this series that's been happening for the last few weeks in the House of Study; it's been a lot of fun. We've been looking at the history of Jewish mysticism, both through looking at specific texts and by connecting a bunch of historical dots that aren't often connected for layfolk because so many people look at trees and not the ecosystem of which the forest is a part. The first two installments are below. Would love to have you join us in this conversation. 🌱❤️
Welcome back to YOUR Jewish Mystical Mystery Tour, Part Three!
Catch up on One and Two, if you'd like– or just come along for this ride:
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
We took a detour to explain a core Kabbalistic concept, but there’s still some history to trace. If you might remember, we had really left off with Sefer Yetzirah— which, again, probably predated ca. 200 CE or so.
Today we'll look at how medieval Kabbalah popped up seemingly "out of nowhere" in Europe (hint: there's always a somewhere) and why and how the Tzfat Kabbalah renaissance got started. (Next week we'll look at some of the influences that contributed to Tzfat Kabbalah becoming what it was.)
So: The dominant narrative is that after Sefer Yetzirah, there was something of a Kabbalistic dark ages until all this stuff exploded in 12th c. Europe. Which– sure. But there are threads, if you look for them.
